Okay, let’s talk about getting that little copyright symbol, the © thing, onto a Mac. I remember needing it for some stuff I was working on, maybe a footer for a small website or just a document I wanted to look a bit more official.
Finding the Symbol
First off, I looked all over the keyboard. Seriously, scanned every key. No © symbol in sight. I thought maybe it was hidden behind one of those Function keys, but nope. It wasn’t obvious at all, which was a bit frustrating.
My next thought was, okay, I’ll just search online and copy-paste it. That worked, sure, but doing it every single time? That felt clunky and slow, especially if I needed it often. I figured there had to be a keyboard shortcut, like the ones for ™ or ® symbols I’d stumbled upon before.
The Keyboard Shortcut
So, I did a quick search specifically for the Mac keyboard shortcut. And there it was. Turns out it’s actually super simple, just hidden in plain sight if you know the magic combo.
Here’s what I learned you need to press:
- Hold down the Option key (some keyboards might call it Alt, it’s usually next to the Command key).
- While holding Option, just press the letter G.
Boom. © appears right where your cursor is. Option + G. That’s it. Tried it a few times, worked like a charm. Easy to remember once you know it – maybe think ‘G’ for… well, I don’t have a good mnemonic, but Option+G is short enough to stick in your head after a few tries.
Another Way: The Character Viewer
I also found out there’s another way if you’re not keen on shortcuts or just can’t remember them. Macs have this thing called the Character Viewer.
You usually get to it from the menu bar at the top of your screen. Often it’s under the ‘Edit’ menu, then something like ‘Emoji & Symbols’ or ‘Special Characters’. When that window pops up, you can just search for “copyright”. The © symbol will show up, and you can double-click it or drag it into your document.
Honestly, I find the Option + G shortcut way faster now that I know it. But the Character Viewer is a good backup, or useful if you need other symbols too and want to browse.
So yeah, that was my little journey figuring out the copyright symbol on my Mac. Started clueless, ended up with a quick shortcut. Pretty handy.
